Remove the "Free To Read" property

[paulwalk]

The "free to read" property was added in 2014 at the insistence of some of the stakeholders who thought that the simpler syntax would allow for easy adoption. In fact, this has caused confusion since nobody is quite clear what it means.

The other problem with this property is that it can create an internal inconsistency because it can contradict what is recorded in the more useful and precise "license_ref" property.

I suggest that we remove "free to read" in the next revision.

Comments?

[geo-mac]

The motivation for removal seems sensible. license_ref is definitely more prescriptive and openness can be inferred from its inclusion. To be honest, the status of free_to_read seems a little uncertain. CrossRef is capturing it but I am less aware of services and OA journals deploying it. OpenAIRE v4 does not specify any NISO indicators.

The only thing I would note is the symbiotic relationship between ali:free_to_read and ali:license_ref. I suppose we have to anticipate that many Green outputs will remain silent on license_ref, by even omitting an 'all rights reserved'. Assuming this is true, then an output which is silent on license_ref (within a profile without free_to_read) would have no machine readable mechanism for indicating openness at all. To this extent an output with license_ref indicates its openness clearly and precisely without free_to_read; but an output without either...?

[paulwalk]

Thanks @geo-mac. I would love to know what the relative coverage is for these two properties “in the wild”. Any idea from your aggregation @petrknoth?

[petrknoth]

I need to look at it. Remind me if I don't post the information here in the next week.

[Ainmhidh]

I need to look at it. Remind me if I don't post the information here in the next week.

Did you find anything useful Petr?

[paulwalk]

Free to Read has been removed from the new draft profile